The recent Japanese Grand Prix in Formula 1 served to confirm a sad reality: Aston Martin has become the worst car on the grid. In Suzuka we saw Cadillac outpace Fernando Alonso both in the race and in qualifying, relegating Aston Martin to the last position.
However, Adrian Newey does not feel overly responsible for Aston Martin’s catastrophe. According to the British guru, the chassis he designed is the fifth-best on the grid, and the only reason Alonso has not yet scored points is the Honda engine deficit, which will still take some time to resolve.
Newey believes his chassis loses less than a second to the leaders
“Regarding the chassis performance, I would say that we are currently in the mid-pack, behind the leaders“. That is the assessment Adrian Newey has offered after the first three Formula 1 races. The head of Aston Martin believes his work hasn’t been all that bad, but the performance shortfall comes from Honda.
“Probably we have the fifth-best chassis, enough to make it into Q3,” Newey continues. Yet the reality for Aston Martin is quite different: the two cars have fallen in Q1 on every occasion, and since Japan they are officially the worst car in Formula 1 after Cadillac’s clear improvement.
Newey even dared to talk about a gap of between seven tenths and a full second between his chassis and the best in Formula 1. Indirectly, what that implies is that three of the four seconds of gap Aston Martin has compared to the fastest are down to Honda.
The problem is that Honda is now focused solely on eliminating vibrations and improving reliability, not on performance. When they can finally consider enhancements, it will be at the earliest in the summer, and Newey fears that by then their frozen chassis will have fallen behind in development.
Newey justifies himself by explaining that “we couldn’t get the car into the wind tunnel until April”, referring to last spring. So his AMR26 started late, and that would explain why it is not on par in terms of chassis with the four giants of Formula 1, even with Newey at the helm.
The truth is that Aston Martin’s reality is that scoring points this season would already be more than expected at this moment, and if it happens it will be in the final races.
Images | Aston Martin, Formula 1
